Lombard Street in San Francisco becomes Candy Land for a day

Candy Land board game 

You’ve got a sweet tooth.  There is candy stashed in your filing cabinet at work, movies are an excuse to feast on more sweets and you never turn down an invitation to anything sugar-coated.  What started this love for all things sweet?  Candy Land.  Your parents were sold when the board game was originally advertised as “the sweet tooth yearning of the younger set without the tummy ache aftereffects.”  Oh, if Candy Land were only real.

AP Photo/Hasbro Inc., Darryl Bush

After 60 years of sparking the candy filled dreams of kids of all ages, Candy Land is coming to life for a day.  Lombard Street known for being crooked and picturesque will be transformed on Wednesday, August 19th into a life-sized game of Candy Land.  In celebration of Candy Land being "a sweet little game... for sweet little folks,” there will be four groups of six children aged 6-10 from UCSF Children’s Hospital and the nonprofit Friends of the Children who will play the game.  The children will pull from an oversized deck of color-coated cards and will advance through the squares of purple, red, blue, orange, green and yellow covering this twisting stretch of Lombard.  At the finish line there will be a cake shaped like King Kandy’s castle, eco-friendly confetti and balloons.

Event planners will start to convert Lombard Street into Candy Land around 4:00 a.m. and the street will be closed to traffic.  Festivities begin at 10:00 a.m.  King Kandy, Lolly and Princess Frostline are all expected to attend.